


Rest for the Weary

by Dragonwish2



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13356255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonwish2/pseuds/Dragonwish2
Summary: Justice helps when they can, wherever they can.





	Rest for the Weary

Justice helps when they can, wherever they can. 

 

Countless mages in Kirkwall suffer in the Circle at the hands of the Templars; the poor and destitute appear daily in the clinic, seeking healing in both the body and mind. Anders gives many a much-needed reminder that there is kindness and good in the world. 

 

For all the good Anders does for Kirkwall, he cannot sleep. 

 

Some nights it's the echoes of a Blight years past, other nights it's Templars with iron grips and apathy masked in metal. The pattern is largely the same, whatever the nightmare: the itch under the skin, the wide eyes always watching, ready to fight the next monster, an unshakable fear of past pain returning to haunt them. 

 

A bruise can heal with time and gentleness. Not all wounds heal, not completely or correctly, least of all those on the soul. 

 

Anders faces his fears day and night, in nightmares or in the waking world where every day he risks himself to help the innocent. Any day, Templars could appear, and maybe this time he wouldn't make it, Hawke might not be there, they could overpower him and take him back and make him Tranquil like they did to Karl, the man who never deserved it, why, why did they kill him in the cruelest way possible- 

 

Sometimes the very air leaves Anders lungs, as if the nightmares followed him into the waking world and gripped his throat with gnarled claws. 

 

Justice helps when they can, however they can. They ground Anders, help hold him upright when his legs threaten to give out from under him, guards him when he is at his most vulnerable and in his greatest hours of need. 

 

Few others see such a side to the healer. Hawke gives him a shoulder to lean on and soft, kind words. They hold Anders through the storm and remind him how to smile once the clouds have passed. Hawke helps Anders, too. 

 

But Hawke isn't there for the nightmares. 

 

Justice has less impact on the Fade since they became part of the living, the physical, the tangible. But they follow Anders into the Fade and sometimes they can change things. 

 

Justice places a guard against the screams of the Blight, and instead gives him music from the Hanged Man as Varric tells another story. They give Anders the sensation of a handsome tabby against his leg, wanting only the thin and worn hands of their owner to give them a scratch on the ear. Justice gives him Hawke's smile and that of the children in the clinic, both those Anders saved and the ones too far beyond his reach. Most of all, Justice gives Anders peace. 

 

Balance is part of Justice, as much as kindness is part of Compassion and hope is part of Faith. A man who has done such much good for the world deserves more than what it gives him. 

 

Justice helps when they can, whenever they can.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fic in 83,573,952 years but lo and behold, one post on tumblr and I'm back on my bull. Un-beta'd. I used they/them pronouns for Justice, if anyone spots a discrepancy, please let me know. Enjoy.


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